This new music video from a local band captures Denton from a different perspective.
In their music video for “The Last Light,” Denton indie rock band Remain captures a restless search for connection through the city’s secluded streets, back alleys and empty parks.
“It’s kind of like tipping a hat to the city,” Remain’s singer and guitarist Caleb Coonrod said.
Coonrod moved to Denton in 2012 and quickly began playing open mics as a solo act. He met drummer Perry Hill in 2014 and formed a band — Remain released their first EP in 2015 and their first album in 2021.
Coonrod said that his mom taught him to play a few chords on the guitar, but he became more actively interested in music when he began writing songs at 16 years old.
“I wasn’t someone who was a really great, awesome singer and I wasn’t someone who was an insane, awesome guitar player, but songwriting was where I spent all my time,” he said.
He said he’s recently been writing a new batch of songs, including “The Last Light.” He said that part of the inspiration for this song came from watching some of his family members struggle with addiction.
“There’s been some family members that are very close to me that … go out at night [and] you don’t know if they’re going to come back,” Coonrod said.
He said that as he got older, he began to understand their feelings of restlessness and their search for something they were missing. He also said he began to feel frustrated at seeing many people consistently choose to stay in instead of going out.
“I understand sometimes you need to stay home, but there is life out there and if you go out, it feels pretty good to experience it,” he said.
To capture this feeling in the music video, Coonrod went out one night to look for locations that fit the song. However, he didn’t want to go too far from his home, where his wife and daughters were sleeping, so he stuck to nearby locations in Denton.
The video was filmed by Ryan McAdams and Brianna Flores of Dallas-based video production company Slate It.
It was filmed along quiet neighborhood streets like Driftwood Trail, Bowling Green Street and Hercules Lane and the back alleys on Sam Bass Boulevard and Ame Drive. It also features one of the The Local Shoppe locations, a national convenience store chain that originated in Denton in 1985.
A few recognizable locations include UNT’s Highland Street parking garage and North and South Lakes parks, but even these familiar locations may look different when they are completely empty at night.
“The city is your setting,” Coonrod said.
He said that he wanted the video to be a sort of love letter to Denton that showed the city from a new perspective.
“I didn’t want to do the Morrison’s Corn-Kits [sign] in the background or the Courthouse or a UNT sign or something,” he said. “I wanted it to be something that was universal.”
Coonrod said the band is currently working toward funding their next album and that they will be releasing more music soon.
“Right now, the focus is to consistently release music, consistently build a world, kind of like we did with the music video, and try to just consistently find the people that [our music connects] with,” Coonrod said.
CAMILA GONZALEZ can be reached at 940-566-6830 and [email protected].
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